Anna Kensing

Happening Friday! My panel in the Forbidden Fruits Virtual Signing event is at 8:00 pm US Eastern time on January 17. Come hang out with me and come early and stay late to meet some great taboo authors, all from the comfort of your own home!

Join the Dark Ink and Shadows Facebook group to participate.

Happy New Year!

I’m in Costa Rica right now (hence the recent radio silence). It’s far warmer than either NYC or Maine but also sticky humid. Spent the morning in the pool, though, so that’s all right. It’s been raining a lot, too, which made our hike along a volcano rather less pleasant than we were hoping.

After the rainy volcano hike and soaking in a hot spring, we stopped off at this big souvenir store. (I’m here with some friends who have two kids—11 and 15–and the 11-year-old was simply desperate for the souvenir shop.)

And this is what the kids found for me at the souvenir shop:

Why yes, that is an entire shelf of carved wooden cock-shaped bottle openers. Some painted extra-special for the discerning tourist:

And some carved to be more life-like:

(I did not turn this one to be balls out. Someone did that before I got to them.)

There was even a shelf of overstock! And a mini keychain version:

Pura vida means “the pure/good life” and it’s the Costa Rican version of “aloha.” It’s used all the time here, functioning like a greeting or farewell, a mood description, a vibe, an exclamation. Obviously, if you’re gonna carve a piece of wood into a cock-shaped bottle opener or keychain, you’re gonna write “Pura Vida” on it too.

Right?

Who's your favorite book boyfriend?

🎄 Dylan Campbell

❄️ Declan Fitzgerald

🛷 Joey Carrigan

⭐️ Elliot Bishop

🎁 Sebastian Colt

🎅 Logan Reynolds

☃️ Silas Mitchell

I just discovered that A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey is on sale for $2.99 right now! @Abigail Tittizer recommended this book and suggested it for our book club but noted that it's a little pricier than normal (usually $10.99--it's published by Penguin Random House and traditionally published books are often more expensive than books independently published by authors).

I have it checked out from my local library but when I saw this sale, I snapped it up on Kobo quick as I could. It's also $2.99 on Amazon right now.

I've no idea how long this sale will last but hope you get to take advantage of it if you're interested in this book!

(These links are affiliate links but that doesn't change the sale price for you.)

Thanksgiving is still decorative gourd season, right? You may remember that last year, I posted a dramatic reading of the stellar McSweeney’s article “It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.”

I take enormous delight in re-reading this article every year, so here’s my annual post of the audio for your seasonal pleasure.

Fair warning: it’s chock full of profanity, so be aware if you’re listening around kids or others sensitive to naughty language.

https://youtu.be/qHZK461omfo?si=g5FBPnn72Vx4Q0bN

I’m feeling better today and it seems clear that I don’t have COVID, so there’s a plus. Might actually try to do some writing one of these days…

ugh, I am sick. Is this COVID or just regular con crud after spending three days at a conference for my day job? Unclear so far.

But I have a dog on my chest and that’s helping a lot.

Look what I just got!

‘Tis the season…❤️🐙💀❤️

I watched a hockey game last night when I was sick and couldn't sleep (the replay of the night before's game between the LA Kings and the Las Vegas Golden Knights, largely because it was the only hockey available to watch at 3:45 in the morning). I'm not exactly a hockey fan and it's been a long time since I've watched any games, but I'm sort of interested in getting interested in watching hockey.

Maybe it's because of all the hockey romances I've been reading lately. And speaking of hockey romances, how is there no MM hockey romance book titled Backdoor Pass??

I forgot to explain the reason I was late to tonight’s cocktail chat with Cephaloheads—I figured I’d take the dog out for his evening walk beforehand instead of afterward and that would have been fine, except that Giles couldn’t decide where he wanted to poop and then when he finally did, he…freaking stepped in it. 🤦

He’s usually really prissy about getting his paws mussed—he jumps over rain puddles, ffs. So I don’t know what the hell caused him to plant his little back paw right on the soft edge of a smooshy turd on a trash-filled Brooklyn street curb.

So I had to clean his paws when we got back inside and that turned into a bigger job that I had to get my wife involved with. She finally took it over so I could start the chat but oh, Giles…

Here he is in his Halloween costume. I guess I can’t stay mad at that face…

Originally posted on the legacy site on October 1, 2024:

Update

So, things have been a little quieter lately, I know. This summer was...busy. 

I spent a lot of the summer prepping for, running, and fulfilling my Kickstarter campaign, which was honestly a lot of fun, but boy howdy, a ton of work.

Then I took a sailing class in late August at the Wooden Boat School in Maine and learned to sail these lovely little 15' Haven sailboats. It was so much fun and I learned so much and two of the gals in the class with me and I are already planning to take the level 2 class together next year. 

We went paddle boarding several times, though not as often we should have, considering we own two paddle boards, a pickup truck, and the beach is about a mile and a half from our Maine house. Still, there were several outings and we took some visiting friends out with us too.

And there was the day job, of course. Which I don't talk about much but sucks up a lot of time I'd rather spend paddling, reading, or writing. One of my colleagues just took an early retirement and I am so freaking jealous!

So, here we are and it's October already and I honestly don't understand how that happened. It's past time to start a new book for the book club and if you're on my newsletter, you may have seen the three suggestions I sent out last night.

Another reason I've been a little quieter than usual is that I'm planning to move this community to a different host and that's required a lot of behind the scenes research and planning. I won't bore you with the details of it, but suffice to say that there apparently is no perfect way to host a community like the one I want to create and some of the trade-offs for some of the more common options are kinda no-gos for me.

So, I'm planning to host the Eight Arms Reading Room on my own website, where I'll have more control over things (and be less susceptible to getting shut down for pearl-clutching, Puritanical reasons). I think I've figured out how to do it and I'm in the middle of migrating as much of the content here over there as I can.

I can't promise the transition will be completely seamless but folks who are currently on an annual plan will keep that, at least through the end of their current plan (I'm not 100% sure yet whether I'll be able to offer annual plans along with monthly plans but the base tier prices will stay the same), and I *think* it should be easier to change tiers on the new site.

This is all just a heads-up for now. I'll give plenty of notice when the new site launches and will probably simultaneously post in both places for a while.

I hope you all have had a great summer! Am I the only one who feels like fall is more of a 'fresh start' season than even the New Year?

❤️

Updated Tue, October 1